Going green means we're trying to avoid harmful chemicals in our everyday cleaning supplies. That pretty much nixes bleach altogether, but we've found a few natural ways to whiten laundry without the use of bleach...
• If you spill something dark, pour salt on it to absorb moisture from the spill.
• Apply white vinegar or lemon juice directly to stains.
• Soak whites in a solution of water and lemon juice.
• Wash whites with washing soda, similar to baking soda but with a lower pH.
• After washing, hang whites to dry in the sun. Sunlight naturally bleaches without setting stains the way a dryer does.
Give us your tips for ways to naturally clean whites in the comments below.
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Comments (32)
I would love to stop using bleach, but I have not been able to find anything else that comes close to keeping whites white. The suggestions offered above just don't cut it, and I don't have the option of hanging sheets, towels, etc. in sunlight. Does anyone have better suggestions? Thank you.
Washing soda only seems to -keep- things white for me. If you have things that are dingy or have lost their bright whiteness, it doesnt seem to restore that nice bright white, but if you always wash in washing soda, borax and fels naptha soap, it seems to help a lot.
I stopped bleaching whites, not because of the environment, but because I never have enough pure white things to do a full load of laundry. I live alone and my sheets are cream/tan. Bathroom towels are blue. Kitchen towels have green stripes. So it's pretty much just socks and washcloths. Neither of those get super stained in the course of normal use, and I just let the fact that they're no longer pure white bother me. I have bleach, for the occasions where I want something so clean it's completely disinfected (trash liner slips and something starts growing underneath it that I don't notice, etc) or if I spill cranberry juice on one of my few white t-shirts, but I've had the same small bottle for two years and it's maybe half gone. Does the environment thank me for just not caring anymore?
Oops, should be "I just don't let the fact"
Sunlight takes forever for blood or chocolate, though. The dangers to the enviroment aren't from household bleach, but rather from the major creators of organochlorines; paper bleaching, plastics manufacture and pesticides.
Soaking clothes in lemon juice is a great way to weaken the fibers.
Oxygen bleaches are an alternative.
I have white pillowcases with dark fabric trim. My head has caused some yellowing of the white fabric, but I can't bleach 'em. Do you think the lemon juice solution will help?
GHB try a bleach pen and/or handwashing it with a light bleach solution
I used Melaluca's MelaBright colour safe brightener.
It works just like colour safe bleach but without the phosphates associated with regular laundry soap.
am i the only one who just can't let go of that divine public-pool chlorine smell? there's no substitute!
I think I won with having the best tip for making whites EXTREMELY white...generic aspirin. The kind you get at Walgreens or Cvs. Just put 3-4 in your load and tahdah...you will be surprised:)
Pinko: LOL! I soak my fabric shower-curtain liners in a bleach solution when they get mildew at the bottoms, and then throw them in the washer. When I hang them up, they still have that faint scent that says "clean" to me, too!
I don't know if it still snows in Chicago, but a traditional way is to hang white linen and cotton and let it freeze. It's said to bleach it.
Guess you'll have to wait 6 months to try it out ....
Sarah, get out of my head!!! I was just looking into this the other day as well! Again, great tips! Thanks!
Can't wait to try the aspirin trick!
And I wish I could still buy a small bottle of chlorine bleach for the occasional skirmish with mildew. Recently I bought "thick" bleach simply because it was in a smaller format, only to realize later that it had other harsh cleansers in it.
Actually, I ran into this problem last year and found two GREAT solutions that actually seem to work better than bleach. They're related, too.
The first is hydrogen peroxide... just dilute some with water and add to a stain. The best part about this is that it seems to work on colors too (check, though -- your mileage may vary).
The second is OxyClean, or like... oxygen bleach. Which apparently breaks down to form hydrogen peroxide. OxyClean has gotten all kinds of stains out of clothes for me and also done an incredible job brightening whites. Just soak overnight and clean the next day.
Geez, sounds like a testimonial!
Here's an ancient Korean secret, no joke. Korean people have been documented to have a long history of wearing white clothing, before washing machine times. Apparently what they did then, and what most housewives continue to do today (including my mom), is to boil their whites with a bit of soap. You can use detergent, oxyclean, whatever's your poison. The key is to use only a little of the soap and then boil it for hours. It preserves the fabric and will get it spotlessly white without using any bleach. I did this once and my roomates thought I was nuts because they looked in the pot hoping for some soup and instead I had a big vat of white washcloths bubbling away on the stove.
I've always known that direct sunlight turns your white clothes yellowish, so beware.
It doesn't remove spots/stains but if you want yellowed or greyed whites bright nothing beats Mrs. Stewart's blueing.
No fiber damage, either.
http://www.mrsstewart.com/
Just don't overdose or you'll turn everything sky blue.
I've got an aspirin experiment brewing in the washer right now! Put it in with white sheets, some of my grayest and most disgusting socks and a shirt. Can't wait to see the results! :)
Did the aspirin trick work?
So.... after reviewing lots and lots of websites (and verifying with mizz. martha stewizzle) to figure out how to get my whites whiter, I decided to go the vinegar way. Holy smokes - IT WORKS!!!! not only were my towels really really white, but they have never felt so soft! I am SOLD. I went to target and bought three big bottles of vinegar, and now I will use it on everything.
I will never stop using bleach, until HAZMAT has me arrested
Check out an organic or natural store and you can probably get a more eco-friendly bleach alternative. I tend to get either oxygen or hydrogen powder there. I have also heard that Hydrogen peroxide works miracles- it turns my skin pretty white when I use it on a cut!
The BEST thing I've found to brighten whites is using cream of tarter. I read about in Real Simple a couple of years back and it works like a charm every time.
For our white sheets and towels I add a cup of hydrogen peroxide and a cup of baking soda to my detergent...the peroxide brightens the whites, the baking soda softens. In fact, I've been adding the baking soda to almost every load, it works so well as a fabric softener.
In regards to household bleach not being as harmful to the environment as its uses in the industrial world - maybe not, but the dioxins it gives off can have an estrogenic effect on your hormone levels. I'm not down with swathing myself in that 8 hours a night!
Can't wait to try the aspirin trick, btw.
White vinegar is great, too.
@sfalygirl, how much cream of tarter do you use?
Dingy whites sometimes benefit from an extra rinse cycle, or using less detergent. According to either Real Simple or Consumer Reports, the brightening agents in non-bleach whitening detergents can build up and turn bright whites to grays. Won't help stains, but it did give me brighter t-shirts and socks!
I have some white pillow cases with red trim, and haven't been able to get them white enough...is the aspirin trick or the vinegar trick ok to use with that?
In our part of the country (central NYS) we have very hard water which causes our whites to go gray. My mom used to use bleach, too much of it, and it just turned them yellow over time. I was told by a scientist client to use Boraxo in the wash and have been doing so ever since. My whites have always stayed white and I've had no further problems. I forget the chemical reaction it creates but it's a good one. I couldn't convince my mom of it, though! All she did was cut back on the amount but it did the same thing. I believe it clings to the fibers and works away on it.
Luna: use vinegar to remove mildew, not bleach...works much better!
try borax. 20 mule team. oldie but goodie. put it into the wash
with your regular detergent and then let it all soak for a few minutes
before you start the regular wash cycle. works like a dream. available
in most supermarkets and target.
Here's another vote for Mrs. Stewart's bluing. Get it dissolved in the water before you add the laundry, though.
I heartily second babibi's comment to boil whites on the stovetop. My husband did this on a whim with our dingy off white Dwell sheets and the body oil stains vanished. Easiest and most effective cleaning ever.